Hand and Brain

 

There will be 5 rounds beginning at 10.30 am

 

Rate of Play: 10 minutes plus a 5 second increment per move.

 

Rules Explained

Hand and brain is a chess variant where each colour is played by two people.

 

One of the players (the "brain") announces one of the six pieces— king , queen , rook , bishop , knight , or pawn —and the other  player (the "hand") moves the named piece on the board providing the move is legal.

 

The catch: the "brain" cannot tell the specific move they want to play or give any hint to help the "hand" to figure it out.

 

For example, on the first move, the brain for White might say "knight." Now, the hand can pick either knight and play it to any legal square. Then the brain for Black might say "pawn" whereon the hand  can play any of the eight pawns one or two squares forward. Then the White brain announces "pawn", and so on.

 

The “hand” operates the clock.

 

The “hand” and “brain” can change for different rounds or can remain the same for the whole event.

Bughouse

 

There will be 5 rounds beginning at 3 pm

 

Rate of play: 10 minutes plus a 5 second increment per move.

 

Rules Explained

The game is played by two teams of two players each. This requires that two chessboards be placed side by side with partners sitting on the same side of the table.

For each team, one player plays with white pieces and the other plays with black.

Each pair of contestants plays an orthodox chess game which has a special feature:

 

All captured pieces are given to ones partner. Once received they become reserve pieces which can be dropped onto an empty square on the board to be used as ones own. This is done in lieu of a board move.

 

There are some restrictions on drops:

A captured Pawn may not be placed on the 1st or the 8 th  rank.

A Rook dropped onto either Rook home square is considered not to have moved; so one may castle with such a Rook.

A similar rule applies to a Pawn dropped onto the second rank: The Pawn inherits the two-step-move option along with the risk of en passant capture.

You may not advise your partner, but you can ask him to capture a certain piece that you need: e.g. "Partner, I really need a Knight".

 

Scoring

The first mate or loss on time  does not decide the match, and play continues on the remaining board.

Captives in hand may still be dropped, but there is no way to acquire new captives. Once the remaining game is completed, points are counted as follows: 1 for a win, ½ for a draw, and 0 for a loss.

The team with the most points wins.

If teams score 1-1, the match is a draw.

Note : A check by a line piece can be voided by dropping a captive between the checking piece and the King, whereas a check by a Knight cannot.

Clock-play rules

One may not inform one's partner that his opponent's time is up (flag has fallen).

There is no exact ruling on exactly when you must hand your partner the captured piece; it may be done before or after you hit the clock.